Thus, both clubs will be playing with fewer than 25 available players. The reaction could be: “Tough luck.” But here are three reasons for more enlightened thinking:

1. The other three major North American team sports have mechanisms by which injured players don’t dress for games, healthy players are made active and both sides fairly begin with the same number of available bodies.

2. So much has been done in recent years to try to mitigate injuries, such as changing the slide rule at second base and the collision rule at home. So why would the sport continue on a path that promotes injury? When a team plays shorthanded, it often forces fatigued or nicked players to keep playing, making them more susceptible to injury. Or the player with the short-term injury is asked to return before he is fully healed.

Yoenis Cespedes bruised his leg on this leap into the Citi Field crowd.Bill Kostroun

3. At times, to avoid playing shorthanded, teams will put a player who only needs to miss, say, a week on the DL. Let’s say that the Mets had to do this with Cespedes. Who does that help? Not the Mets, who are paying him more per year than any player in their history and want him available for as many games as possible. Not the fans. I am sure if you are paying for tickets or watching the games, you would prefer to see Cespedes more, not less.

The union plans to make a seven-day DL part of its presentation in the ongoing negotaitions for a new collective bargaining agreement, sources told The Post. This issue previously has come up at GM Meetings, but I have been told it never gets enough votes to pass along to ownership.

The main hiccup has been concerns that teams will find loopholes to, say, rest a pitcher for a start without having to play shorthanded.

That is true: Teams will always push to the margins of rules. But keep in mind a team doctor has to sign off on all DL moves, so a doctor would have to lie about an injury. To avoid this, at least initially I would make a seven-day DL stint something teams can only use three times a year, exclusively for position players. Would a team use one of three precious slots for a fake injury? Especially if it meant losing a position player for a week?

Remember, the 15-day DL is just a contrivance. It could be the 12-day or 19-day DL, but because we have five fingers on each hand and 10 all together we are more comfortable with things that end in fives and zeroes. The first DL came in 1940, and players had to be out a minimum of 60 days with a maximum of two players allowed on the list. Over the years, disabled lists of 10, 21 and 30 days came and went, so there is nothing that is sacrosanct about just having a 15-day and 60-day DL.

There is precedent for changing DL rules to incorporate more modern thinking. The Family Medical Emergency Leave (Bereavement), Paternity Leave and 7-day concussion DL each were incorporated in the last 12 years for short-term absences. All allow the team to lose a player for shorter than 15 days, but replace him with a player to keep their 25-man roster whole.

The minor leagues already have a seven-day DL. It is time for the majors to do the same.

Joey RickardGetty Images

Joey Rickard sticking with Birds

Early in spring training, Orioles manager Buck Showalter pointed at a young outfielder during batting practice and said to me, “That is Joey Rickard. I like him a lot. I think he is going to make our team.”

Rickard has done more than that. Hyun Soo Kim was given a two-year, $7 million deal to come from South Korea to play left field. But he performed poorly in the spring. Rickard excelled to become the starting left fielder and, eventually, leadoff man. Not bad for a Rule 5 pick.

Rule 5 picks have gone on to great success: Roberto Clemente, George Bell and Josh Hamilton ultimately won MVPs, Johan Santana won Cy Youngs and Guillermo Hernandez won both. But none ever has won a Rookie of the Year. Rickard has a long way to go for that, but in the early going he would have to be in the American League discussion with Astros first baseman Tyler White and Rangers outfielder Nomar Mazara. Also, Rickard has some indicators that his early strong start (.306 average, .741 OPS) won’t hold, notably that he has just three walks compared to 17 strikeouts and his batting average on balls in play (.375) is significantly higher than the league average.

Nevertheless, for the cost of $50,000, the 24-year-old was a worthy pick. Why did the Rays make him available? The Rays saw there was a limited history of righty-hitting outfielders sticking the required full year with a new team out of the Rule 5 draft, and they had a volume they prioritized protecting on their 40-man roster: Brandon Guyer, Desmond Jennings, Mike Mahtook, Taylor Motter, Richie Shaffer and Steven Souza. Thus, they lost two – Rickard to the Orioles and Tyler Goeddel to the Phillies.

The Rays did think because Rickard has such good contact skills, strong on-base numbers in the minors and a high baseball IQ that he not only could be lost in the Rule 5 draft, but stick with his new team.

White Sox showing off the leather

The Cubs have gotten a lot of Second City love – rightfully so. But the White Sox ended the weekend in first place as well. Their pitching has received a lot of praise, but hand in hand with that has been excellent defense.

The White Sox ranked just 25th in strikeouts per nine innings (7.5) and second in team ERA (2.28). Of the 105 pitchers qualified for the ERA title, Mat Latos (4.8) had the seventh-lowest strikeout rate per nine innings. Yet, he was 4-0 with a 0.74 ERA.

The ball is in play. Last year, that was a disaster for the White Sox. They ranked 28th in defensive efficiency – how many balls in play are turned into outs. This year, they are first (the Cubs were second).

The keys have been Austin Jackson being signed to play center, which has moved Adam Eaton to right (where he is far better, and it gets the subpar Avisail Garcia off the field). Todd Frazier is viewed as an above-average third baseman, and the shortstop duo of Jimmy Rollins and Tyler Saladino is an upgrade from Alexei Ramirez.